Her work has featured in exhibitions in Porirua, Palmerston North and Auckland and at the Aratoi Wairarapa Museum of Arts and History in Masterton.
The other Te Waka Toi recipient this year was Gisborne-based artist Kingi Pitiroi, Ngati Tuwharetoa, who holds a Bachelor in Maori Visual Arts and Design and is practicing ta moko under the guidance of tohunga ta moko, Derek Lardelli.
During her speech at the awards ceremony, Ms Te Whaiti thanked Te Waka Toi, the Maori Arts Board of Creative New Zealand, Professor Bob Jahnke, her supervisor Ngatai Taepa and peers at Te Putahi-a-Toi, and her whanau.
She said in her speech that she is today developing a body of work that will first see the light at Cape Palliser, the southern-most tip of the Wairarapa and Te Upoko o te Ika.
She said the exhibition would show in the old lighthouse-keeper's house "where Ngati Hinewaka were in wananga during most of 1997 as preparation for the reconstruction of Makotukutuku wharepuni, which is still at Te Papa".
"I'm exploring ways of capturing voice through painting - 'seeing the voices' if you like - and I'm excited by the challenge I have set myself and where it is taking me," she said.
